Board members of the Institute of Contemporary Art on Penn's campus have made large donations totaling $4.5 million to the museum, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. These donations will mostly be used to endow curatorial positions.
Brett and Daniel S. Sundheim donated $3 million to the museum, which is located on campus at 118 S 36th Street. Daniel, a 1999 Wharton graduate who is the former chief investment officer at the hedge fund Viking Global Investors, has served on ICA's board since 2012. Brett, his wife, recently joined the board in her husband's place, The Inquirer reported.
While the majority of the Sundheims' donation will be used to endow the position of the chief curator, a portion of the donation is intended to fund ICA's community engagement and outreach efforts.
Current ICA board chair Andrea Laporte also made a large donation of $1.5 million to finance the position of associate curator at the museum. Laporte, a 1969 Nursing graduate, is also the board chair of Penn Nursing and was a former Penn trustee.
The ICA is home to a range of contemporary art, including works by pop artist Andy Warhol, and American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
Some Penn professors regularly incorporate the ICA as part of their courses. As part of an art history seminar offered in 2015, Penn students worked with ICA staff in various departments to learn how to curate works for their exhibits.
Last semester, the ICA also collaborated with Penn's Creative Writing program to analyze the relationship between race and language. Together, the two groups hosted a panel at the Kelly Writers House named “Race and Form: a Dialogue.”
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